WELL-BEING AND TREATMENT SATISFACTION IN ADULTS WITH DIABETES - A SWEDISH POPULATION-BASED STUDY

In order to implement the St Vincent Declaration programme, instrument s for quality assurance of medical outcomes as well as measures of psy chological outcomes of diabetes care had to be developed. This paper p resents baseline values for three questionnaires measuring psychologic al Wellbeing, Treatment Satisfaction and General Health among a repres entative sample of adult people with diabetes in Sweden consisting of 423 individuals of which 153 were insulin treated and 270 were diet/ta blet-treated. Cronbach's alpha indicated that each of the Well-being a nd Treatment Satisfaction subscales was internally reliable, alphas ra nging from 0.66-0.88. Factor analysis resulted in identification of fi ve subscales (depression, anxiety, positive well-being, treatment sati sfaction and metabolic control). There was no relation between any of the quality of life subscales with HbA1c, BMI, duration of diabetes, f requency of blood glucose tests per day, insulin regimens or diabetic complications. Females reported a more negative impact of diabetes on daily life compared with males (p < 0.001). In conclusion, the Well-be ing and Treatment Satisfaction scales are reliable for quality assuran ce purposes in diabetes while the briefer general health instrument pr ovides a useful assessment of the global impact of a chronic disease.